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K Street ready to swing into action

Ogilvy Government Relations, which has so far reported $12.1 million in lobbying revenue this year, has lost notable clients, key personnel have quit, and the firm has shuffled its leadership. In 2011, it earned just under $20 million; at its peak in 2009 and 2007, it made $22 million a year.

Brendan Daly, a spokesman for the firm, pointed to two new hires — Dee Buchanan, former House Republican Conference chief of staff, and veteran American Petroleum Institute lobbyist Con Lass — and a new strategic alliance with tax lobbying firm GDS Strategies. With the alliance, GDS Strategies’ three principals — James Gould, Thomas Dwyer and Tucker Shumack — will co-market their services with Ogilvy and share the firm’s office space.

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Venable, for its part, is “really bullish on lobbying in 2013” and “destined to go up on the list” of top-earning lobbying firms, said Rob Smith, co-chairman of the firm’s legislative practice.

That’s in large part because the firm is stocked with clients, such as hotel and construction interests, concerned with corporate tax issues and other timely topics including online gambling and Hurricane Sandy relief, he said.

Smith said the Washington-based firm, which is best known for its legal practice, isn’t planning on growing its lobbying business by acquiring smaller firms but by expanding from the inside out. Venable’s most robust lobbying earnings came in 2009, when it took in about $12.4 million. Earnings dropped in 2010 and 2011 but are on pace to go back up in 2012, federal disclosures show.

It’s not all about traditional lobbying these days, however.

Diversification may be the salvation for many government affairs firms, said Doug Turner, a partner at public affairs firm Agenda, who argues that “to get through the noise of lobbying, you’ve absolutely got to cut through it with other forms of advocacy these days.”

Cassidy & Associates is another firm seeing lobbying revenues dip, reporting $11.5 million so far this year — about half the roughly $20 million it pulled in for each of the previous three years.

But it’s just added a $1.2 million-a-year client in the government of Guinea-Bissau. And Gerald Cassidy, chairman and chief executive of the firm, said lobbying revenue alone is not reflective of the firm’s overall performance because it also offers non-lobbying services to clients.

“That is a point reflected in all our internal decisions and demonstrated by continued growth of our global reach, public policy and political intel counsel and other work that best manages our clients’ Washington risk but doesn’t necessarily fall under the label of traditional lobbying,” Cassidy said in a statement.

The industry must continue reinventing itself because “lobbying is harder today than ever before but more necessary than ever before, given the volume and complexity of issues,” said Nick Allard, a partner at Patton Boggs and dean of the Brooklyn Law School.

And while nothing will ever replace traditional lobbying fare such as platinum contacts and knowledge of rules and procedures, “the old stuff of just scheduling meetings or going to hearings or getting a committee report for a client isn’t going to cut it,” he said. “Those lobbying shops not up to speed and not able to keep up are at a disadvantage.”